A Different Version
by DBrooklyn
Summary: 5 months after Dimitri and Andre run away from the academy, they're brought back unwillingly. But why did they leave in the first place?
1. Setting the scene

**Hey, Dbrooklyn here. This is my first story EVER okay, hah yeah just a bit nervous uploading this. I'm not sure if you guys will like it. I've been reading on here for a while and I finally convinced myself to start typing mine up. So tell me if its good, bad, needs improvements? Right, enough blabbing – REEEAD (:**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I will never ever ever own Vampire Academy, nor its characters, much to my dismay (Insert really sad face). But nevertheless, the torture I put them through, is my fault, and mine alone.**

We've been on the run for just over 5 months now. It only seems like yesterday when Andre and I escaped St. Vladamirs in the middle of the Moroi night, by compelling the guards to fall asleep and forget they had ever seen us. I'm still not sure how strong his compulsion is, or if it had worked well enough back at school for them to actually forget us leaving, but so far so good right? The only doubt I have in my mind is of my guarding skills. Sure, back at school I was known as a god, and that I was the top of my classes, but that didn't mean I wouldn't hesitate in the real world and fail Andre. I have to protect him. _They come first_ had been drilled into my mind the moment I started school.

We've been staying at a community college in Seattle for about 2 of the 5 months now. Every couple or so weeks at the start of our 'holiday' we moved towns so they wouldn't find us and drag our asses back. At first, we stayed in Portland in some run down hotel. But it turned out we were being tracked. We were out one night – like the _actual_ night, bad on my part, but we were in desperate need of some blood – and you know how animals hate my race? Well this dog came and was all lovey-dovey towards me. To say I was a bit freaked out was an understatement. But suddenly everything all snapped together when its mouth opened and a pair of long, protruding fangs bit into my arm so deep I wouldn't have been surprised if they came out the other side. Psi-hounds. They only answered to Moroi, and they weren't that common, so yeah, I was completely caught off guard. After about 10 minutes of fighting with the animal I eventually mustered up my remaining energy and attacked at full speed, breaking its neck. Dead. Score one for the Russian bad-ass.

Did I forget to mention that I was Russian? Well my family and I moved here from Russia when I was 12 years old, whereas my sisters Karolina, Sonya and Viktoria were 16, 14 and 11. Our father, if you would even call him that, did some pretty horrible things to my mother and I guess she finally stood up for herself. One day when my sisters and I arrived home from a normal human school we found all of our belongings packed in what seemed like a thousand cardboard boxes that were being loaded into a moving van. From there we drove to the airport and boarded a private jet that was owned by a family friend of ours that also happened to be a Moroi. We called him _Zmey_ behind his back, translating to 'snake' in Russian. Everybody knew he didn't have a soft _anything_ in his body, and that he was a kneecap breaker, but when it involved my family he would drop anything to help. Once Mama told him what happened, just like that he flew us off to St. Vladamirs in Montana to start fresh.

That's when my troubles began. In every school there is that unspoken rule of fitting in and if you aren't devastatingly gorgeous or sexy, you're a nobody. Same rules applied here, except it was if you weren't a Royal, with the exception of the Ozera line, then you shut up and sit in a corner for the rest of your miserable schooling. At first, nobody talked to my family and I so we made our own group and avoided as much human –Moroi and dhampir – contact as possible. The first to make friends was Viktoria, at 7 you don't really know about the dramas of school so she was welcomed with wide arms in the first week we were there. Eventually everybody but me had a group to sit with, and even at the age of 9, it still hurt a hell of a lot. I think I was sitting in art when this girl, my age more or less, with long brown hair came and sat next to me with the biggest goddamned smirk on her face. I looked over to where she was smirking and there stood this red haired, freckle faced boy that had the exact same facial expression. You'd think they were related because of that mirror image smile, but their hair and eye colour wastoo drastic for them to have come from the same family.

"Hi, I'm Rose Hathaway and that's Mase, and if you want to stay in our good books you better not mess with us, or face the wrath of Peanut Butter" She lifted up one arm to show off her almost non-existent muscle. "and Jelly", she said as she lifted up her other arm in the same position. I almost peed myself laughing when she said that. For one, what the hell was peanut butter and jelly? And why was she threatening me when I could have easily taken her on. If we both stood up I could have easily towered over her short frame. I received a glare from her and that boy on the other side of the room and shrunk back into my seat, suddenly afraid of them.

"Rosie, don't be so mean all the time. Never going to get a boyfriend with that attitude", a voice from behind Rose spoke. She rolled her eyes and turned towards this petitegirl with mid length blonde hair and jade green eyes. I recognised her as a Dragomir, we still knew our royal lines and what features they had. And even though we lived in another country, we didn't live under a rock.

"God Lissy-poo, calm down. I was just talking to umm... what's your name Comrade?" Rose asked me, still glaring at this 'Lissy-poo' girl. What the hell kind of a name was 'Comrade'? When I didn't respond right away she stared at me, probably wondering if I was mentally retarded or something. I felt my cheeks flush and I spoke in the tiniest voice I've ever heard come out of my mouth.

"D-Dimitri Belikov, my names Dimitri Belikov". I managed to stammer out that much before the teacher, Guardian Alto, came over and yelled at Rose for disrupting the class even though she wasn't talking. This teacher must have had it in for her.

That's my first memory of Rose Hathaway, Vasilisa Dragomir and Mason Ashford I have. I met Andre Dragomir that same day when Vasilissa invited me to have lunch at their table. This earned her a glare from both Rose and Mason but she seemed to not notice, or if she did she would crack a hissy with them when I was gone. Andre looked a lot like Lissa, with the same hair and eye colour, but he had his hair gelled up in neat little spikes and had mature features that were masculine enough to suit a 15 year old. Turns out Andre and Lissa were twins, and they were the last two remaining Dragomirs, after their mother and father died in a car crash 3 years ago. Although they would be missing their parents a hell of a lot, they had no signs of grief or anything really on their faces except for that same smirk it seemed everyone wore at the table. 'Everyone' included Rose, Lissa, Mason, Andre, some boy named Eddie Castile, Meredith and Christian Ozera. I was kind of surprised the Dragomirs would be associating with an Ozera, due to obvious reasons, but it didn't seem to faze them. The group accepted me more than willingly, except for Rose and Mason, but hey, you can't please them all. These kids turned out to be the most amazing people I'd ever met, excluding my family and even thinking about them made my heart ache in a weird way. They'd become a part of my family in my 4 years of staying at St. Vlad's and Andre and I were like brothers, just like how Lissa and Rose were un-biological sisters.

It was currently snowing outside in Seattle, and all nightclasses had been called off across the street. The dorm Andre and I live in was shared with one other person. He was attending a different junior college about 20 minutes away and he often stayed at a mate's house during the week so we barely saw him. That was fine with us, he wasn't very social anyways. Obviously, we stuck to our vampire schedule and attended night classes, and because they were cancelled we decided to hit the gym in the mall just down the street, despite the schools warning for us not to leave the dormitories. I've been trying to keep Andre fit – not that he would be fighting future strigoi or anything- so that if we came face to face with an undead pain in my ass we could make a run for it, and he wouldn't be slowing us down. Before making it to the malls gym we walked past a local pub to get Andre a quick drink –of blood. We don't go in, but we wait outside for someone who's almost at the point of passing out to stumble out of the pub so Andre can, for lack of better words 'Snatch, eat, erase', made famous by the one and only Damon Salvatore. Ugh speaking of those 'vampires', who the hell makes up those ridiculous ideas about our kind? Vampire Diaries at least get parts of our powers right with compulsion and having this weird feeling of being drawn to us, but Twilight did us no justice what so ever.

We ended up waiting at the bar for about half an hour before a trashy blonde pretty much fell onto the door, pushing it open. This was our chance. As soon as she walked outside myself and Andre walked past and 'accidently' bumped into her, causing her to drop her bag. Then we acted like the true gentlemen we really were behind our bad-ass façade and helped her retrieve all of her belongings.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Not to mention clumsy. Are you okay gorgeous?" Andre asked. She barely acknowledged his compliment and apology and stood up to leave once we handed her things back. The lady looked up at us for the first time, and noticing our charming looks she must have been taken aback because she gave us her best version of a man-eater smile that looked more like a goofy grin in her drunken state. That man-eater smile had absolutely nothing on Rose's. Even when Rose was out-of-this-world-drunk her smile still made the boys' legs turn to jelly.

"I'm fine, thank you" she replied kind of seductively, it was highly amusing given the fact that her words came out like garbled mush. If it weren't for our super hearing we probably wouldn't have understood a word of it. Now it was my turn to talk, my accent did the trick at getting girls to swoon all over me.

"If you'd like we could walk you to where you're headed. I don't think you could walk much longer in those heels anyway. Not to mention it's almost 3am and there are creeps out at this time of night'.

I think I convinced her to come with us because she suddenly linked her arm around Andres and walked with us.

"I'm Brittany by the way. Who are you? And how old are you? You both look too young to be hanging around a pub.", she asked as we walked past the opening of an alleyway. We knew this part of town well, and this is where we stopped to 'snatch, eat, erase'.

"I'm Kyle Smith, and this tall Russian next to me is Ryleigh Christianson, we're both 17, and right now, you're going to stand there looking pretty, not say a word and let me have a drink." Andre replied, pulling her deep into the shadows of the tall buildings in the alleyway, compelling her. This part always repulsed me, no matter how many times I've watched it happen. There was no fear in her eyes as Andre bit down into her neck and drank. Once he'd been satisfied he healed her wounds and compelled her to forget what happened, that she lost her way and she's going to go home and sleep.

We made it to the gym within the next 10 minutes and headed straight for the food court. What can I say; he had his feed, now it was my turn. I went into a 24 hour café and bought a donut and coffee, while Andre bought some mineral water. We headed down the escalators to this sort of secret ground floor that was set up like recreational centre. There was equipment on one side of the room, next to the multiple exercise machines. The other side had mats lying all over the floor in neat rows with a mirror stretched along the wall; I think that was for yoga. Off to the side there was a door frame with thick plastic strips hanging from the top all the way to the ground. That was where we were headed. Inside there was a pool and a small running track. The pool was about 50m long, and the track circled the pool, so it was about 200m long, give or take. This place was huge, but you wouldn't have thought that with the size of the shop floor. This was after all a secret underground hideout. We finished working out at around 5:30am, so we were there for about 2 hours just running and doing laps in the pool, until Andre's string of complaints never ended.

"Dimitri when can we stop? Dimkaaaaa pleeeeeease can we just go now? Why don't we stop running Dimmy, I'm so tired! DIMITRI BELIKOV! I order you to stop whatever the fuck you are doing and get out of the pool this instant, I'm cold and tired, and I want my goddamned bed!" was all I had been hearing for the past half an hour before I decided to respect his wishes – unfortunately – and lead him home. We had just headed into the food court that had a door leading to the front of the mall in the direction of our dorm when we heard a shaky gasp come from behind us. Shit! Why hadn't I been on my game and checked the area out?

"ANDRE!" screamed a voice from behind us. We both froze of the spot. I hadn't heard that voice in months, ever since she attempted to dream walk with me and squeeze me for information on our whereabouts.

To say we were fucked was an understatement.

**Hmmm.. good? Bad? Almost there? REVIIIIIEW! Xo**

**De**


	2. The Return

**Aww, thankyou guys (: i wasnt expecting that many favourites and stooof 3 yaaay for positive feedback!**

**I also forgot this last time - but thankyou to Zoe, my little Beta! **

**Disclaimer:  
><strong>**Me: '*sigh* Dimitri, you wanna do the discaimer for me, i dont think i can' :(  
>Dimitri: 'Um, no. First you made me get bitten by a psi hound, and then you made me put up with Andres whining. Do it yourself.'<br>Me: 'fine. GUYS, i do not own Vampire Academy or Dimitri Belikov (cries), the amazing Richelle Mead does.'**

Still frozen, Andre looked at me with pleading eyes; they seemed to be sending a message saying _'get us the hell away from her'_. We had no choice but to run. Run away from the memories that followed that voice. From the dangers of the life we lived. From everything really.

But as we took our first steps towards the entrance, a large amount of guardians – at least 20 or so – came from all directions, making it almost impossible to leg it. _Almost. _I knew Andre was the most important Dragomir, so to speak. He was the only one left that could carry his family name into the next generation, as Liss would be married off into another important Royal line. But having this many guardians after us? Well _him_? There were more guardians here for Andre than the Queen travelled with.

I pushed Andre behind myself and bent my knees, ready to take on anybody who dared getting past me. The guardians closed in around us, surrounding us. There was really no point in having Andre behind me now, they obviously knew of my amazing skills and my tactics so they could use that to their advantage. Nevertheless, I stayed in my fighting stance, ready to take on the world. That's when one of the guards jumped towards me. I anticipated his actions and just as I went to attack him something stopped me. I heard Andre, in my head. _'It's okay Dimmy, let them take us back'. _It was like he spoke out loud, but when I stole a glance towards him, his lips weren't moving. Noticing that I was distracted, someone came from behind me and hit me on the head with something hard. As I fell, my eyes landed on somebody familiar, somebody holding a stake. This was my attacker. She was a short brunette and she was looking down at me with a seriously pissed off expression. '_Ahh, Rose. Always knew how to make men fall to her feet'_ was my last thought before darkness engulfed me.

I woke with a killer headache. I rolled over on the bed and suddenly yesterday's events flashed through my head. ROSE! God, would that mean I was at…?

I looked around. I was in a small room with a bed in it. In fact, I don't even think we were in a house. I stumbled out of bed and towards the tiny window. I mentally swore as I stared at the blue sky and houses that looked tiny specks of sand from this distance. Great, we were on the schools private jet. How the hell didn't I feel the plane moving? I'm really starting to question my guarding; first it's not seeing Liss, then the embarrassment of being rendered unconscious by somebody at least 2 heads shorter than me, and now… this!

"Oi Dimitri, I can see you're awake in there. Open up", a voice commanded behind the sliding door.

Sighing, I got up unlocked it and sat down on the bed, going back to stare at the window to think. Rose, Lissa and Andre all walked in and sat on the floor in front of me. After about 10 minutes of coming up blank with an escape plan I turned my head towards the gang. It looked as if the twins were having some sort of silent argument with their facial expressions, and I didn't really want to get in the middle of that – although I did want to know what it is about. I could always just… go into Andres head and figure out what it was about, but no. I couldn't do that. He hated it when I did that, and quite frankly, so did I. It was invasion of privacy. Not to mention it was a bitch to get out of his head once I got in. So instead, I stole a glance towards Rose. She must have noticed and looked back at me with that smirk she always has. I guess old habits die hard there. Bet she thought she was the bees knees back at the mall.

"Rosie Posie eats crap loads of pie, punched the boys and made them cry. When all the girls had something to say, Rosie Posie kicked them all and ran away", I sang to her. That wiped the smugness off her face at once. I guess she doesn't like to be reminded of that.

_Flashback:_

_It was about a year ago, so we were all 15 or 16. And being the typical teenagers we were, we decided to have a party in Lissa's room. I came in late, as I had to attend some community service I was given by Stanny boy, also known as Alto. I had put superglue on his chair when I walked into class just before he arrived, so it wouldn't dry before he got there. Of course, him being his usual ignorant self didn't notice, and sat down for the entire hour, torturing us by making us read some booklet in silence. After half the lesson passed I had to put the paper in front of my face, so Stan couldn't see me silently laughing like a maniac. Rose just stared at me like I was going crazy, until I mouthed 'Super-glued his ass' to her. She of course, burst out laughing causing the whole class to stare at her like _she _was the crazy one. Stan looked up and gave her his 'I'm not in the mood for your shit Hathaway' look. Yes, she even has a look named after her._

"_Come at me bro!" she yelled at him, giving him one last smug look before he got up._

_Well, attempted to get up. The chair sort of rose with him, and he looked completely idiotic. That was it. The whole class just lost it; even the guardians standing around the room cracked their masks and smiled at Rose, obviously thinking it was her doing._

"_Nice one Belikov, you're in my good books for this one", we high fived each other, and then it dawned on me. Wait, did she just rat me out? That little… I'll let you leave your imagination to finish that sentence. I received 4 hours of cleaning the church's attic for that little stunt. _

_Back to the party. I came in late, as said before, and I noticed our gang were sitting in a circle playing truth or dare, already drunk. I noticed Eddie and Mason had dried blood and bruises starting to form on their faces. I guess they would fill me in on that later. Rose was nowhere to be seen. Odd, usually she was the life of the party. They also had dessert. Chocolate pies. I had asked where mine was, and that lead to them telling me what went down at dinner. Turned out Rose had eaten hers, mine, half of Lissa's, threw Eddies at his face, and then ate the rest of the leftovers. It was a wonder she wasn't morbidly obese yet._

_Eddie had apparently stood up to her, alongside Mason and bitched her out. To which she punched them both in the face repeatedly until they took what they said back. So, that was what happened to them. And then _Lissa_ of all people, laid into her, pretty much saying if she didn't cut it out she would never have pie again and wouldn't be invited to anymore parties. Drunken Rose somehow took that to heart and kicked Lissa in the shins until Mase restrained her. She eventually stopped struggling and ran back to her room, crying. She's always been an odd one._

_So that's how that song was formed. _

"Shut it, Belikov. At least I can protect my Moroi." She replied back with venom laced in her words, bring me back to reality.

That earned her a death glare from me, and caused Andre to stop midway in his argument and defend me.

"Rose, Dimitri has protected me. So shut up, you have no idea what we have been through and you need to learn to shut your mouth, I guess you haven't changed much in that department", Andre snapped back, causing Rose and Lissa to stare back at him with shock written all over their faces. Andre wasn't one to lash out at people, and I could tell it was the darkness forming in Andre doing the talking. I quickly removed some of it from him into me, just a bit, so I wouldn't get all violent, and he would be released from the dark thoughts floating around in his head. He mouthed a 'thankyou' to me and mumbled a string of apologies to the girls until they ended up lying all over each other in a human sandwich, hugging and laughing.

We finally landed back in Montana, about two and a half hours away from the school. There were cars parked at the end of the airstrip waiting to take us back to hell on earth. I mentally sighed at that thought; it looked like we were really going back.

The guardians weren't as stupid as I remembered them being, as they made it very clear that I wasn't to be in the same car as Andre, so I had to sit next to the one person who would go out of their way to make life hell. Want to take a guess who that might be? She actually didn't pull any stunts on me during the whole trip back. Actually, she kind of looked out of it, like she wasn't really there. I attempted to talk to her half a dozen times at least, but every time I spoke I received no reply. Well, two can play at that game. So for the rest of the ride in I just thought about the punishment Kirova would dish out to me. She would never punish Andre, never. Stupid Royal heritage.

I was so caught up in trying to figure out what community service I would be allocated by that old hag, that I didn't even notice we pulled up at the front of the gates. If anyone was to ever find this place, they'd probably think this was some kind of castle, or a historical sight. It was just so… _old._ There were really no other words to describe it. It has never been modernised, except for inside, and I swear it's been around since the beginning of time.

Our stuff from Seattle also came with us. I hadn't even noticed them removing them from the plane once we touched down, but I was too preoccupied summing up our chances of escape. Why was I still so hell bent on getting out again? It was obvious they were going to reinforce more guardians around the premises, so we have no chance of getting out. And of course, Andre's life was the most important thing to me, so why was I denying him his right of protection behind wards? _Gee Dimitri I don't know why. Maybe because the threat was _inside_ the wards 5 months ago. _Now I'm talking to myself? Great, that's a common sign of mental instability. I decided to start listening in on Alberta –our head guardian at the academy- tell Andre what was happening now.

"- taking you to Kirova's office, to receive your punishment", was all I caught in that sentence.

"How bad do you think it'll be 'Berta?" Andre asked.

Alberta was like a second mum to him after his parents died. She was even more bad-ass than all the other guardians here and probably most at court, but she had the softest heart possible. Kind of ironic actually. She pulled him in for a bone-crunching hug before replying with an uncertain answer that consisted of an "I'm not sure". I was certain Andre would be let off the hook with a couple days of detention. But me? A lowly foreign dhampir who had a similar mind to Rose? Yeah, I was screwed.

We finally made it into the academy itself and then led towards Kirova's office. They decided to take us through the main lobby of the academy, where it was currently rush hour as lessons changed. The fun just keeps on coming. A few seniors – like ourselves- stopped and stared as if we had grown another head or something. I felt like telling them what for, but somebody bet me to it.

"Take a photo morons, it'll last longer!" Rose yelled out to the bystanders, causing them to start walking again or suddenly look as if they were busy. Either way, nobody dared stare at us again, in our eyesight. But I could feel eyes burning into my back the whole way there. It was times like these that made me realise why I actually liked Rose. She was such a bitch, but if anyone dared to mess with the people she cared for they had better sleep with one eye open.

As we rounded the corner that led us into her office we almost ran into another large group or seniors coming out of her office. Straight away I recognised them, well all but one, some random Moroi. We stood there for a couple seconds awkwardly before Eddie spoke up.

"What the..? What the hell Rose? This is what you rang us all smug about? You said we would never guess what happened in Seattle, and we expected you to have found some specials at Victorias Secret that you could try out on Adrian." – _Who the hell is Adrian?_ I stole a glance towards Rose and I noticed she was actually blushing. And I don't mean a light pink, but completely red! Something triggered in my body at that moment, it made me want to find this Adrian guy and see if he was worthy of her. '_What the hell Belikov? Why is there suddenly a green monster sitting on your shoulder, you don't even like Rose that way for Christ's sakes!' _ There we go again with the mental talk. –"But instead, you find these two and bring them back?" He exclaimed, clearly annoyed that we returned.

Christian, Mason and Mia all nodded their heads in agreement. The guy I had no idea of just stood there staring at Rose, and as I turned to look at Rose, her attention was completely focused in on him. What had I missed while we were gone? And what had we done to deserve the cold shoulder from the rest of the group?

Before Rose could reply, or really anybody else for that matter, we were dragged into Kirova's office. It was the usual lecture she would dish out if you skipped class, but this time maximised by about 100 because well, we didn't just skip class. I found myself checking out my surroundings in the room; a habit I had eventually picked up during our time away. I heard someone's throat clear and turned back to see Kirova glaring daggers at me. I stared back and made a motion with my hand telling her to go on.

But again, I ended up zoning out thinking about Roses new play toy. I wondered if he was a Moroi or dhampir. Whether he was a doormat and just let her walk all over him, bossing him around, or if stood on his own two feet and wore the pants in the relationship. I doubted the latter, I mean its _Rose_ we're talking about. What I really wanted to know was if I had seen him before. I'm certain I would have remembered him before we left; I'm pretty good with putting a name to a face. But I was coming up blank. _Who was this guy?_

The attention was then turned onto me, so I zoned back in. She droned on and on about how reckless I was, and how irresponsible it was to leave the safety of wards, just so we could sleep in til god knows what hour of the day. On and on the lecture went until I couldn't stand it anymore. Then she mentioned my lack of guarding skills, and that was it. I slammed my fists down on the table before standing up swiftly.

"I DID KEEP HIM SAFE! I KEPT HIM SAFE WHEN NONE OF YOU" I made a sweeping gesture around the room, pointing at every individual person "COULD. YOU DON'T THINK I WOULD FORGET THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DECISION TO LEAVE? I TELL YOU WHAT KIROVA, I MAY BE A FUCKING FOREIGN COMMONER, BUT I KNOW HOW TO KICK ASS, AND NEXT TIME, THAT ASS MIGHT BE YOURS!" I finally let out the anger forming in me from the darkness. It wasn't until the words left my mouth that I regretted them instantly. Shit. The guardians around the room stepped forward until they were right behind or beside me. I slumped back down in my seat, suddenly feeling drained. '_Now you've done it'_ my subconscious scolded me. Wow, I was turning against myself now.

"See this? Absolutely no respect and no restraint. This is why I have decided upon my decision of your punishment. As a Royal, Andre will stay here to finish his schooling and graduate. You, on the other hand are disposable, and all the very raw potential in the world will not change my mind. Dimitri Belikov, I have decided that you are no longer a part of St. Vladimir's Academy. You will be sent away, immediately." She finished her tiny speech with the biggest shit-eating grin I've ever seen. That almost made me get up from my seat again and show her just how fast I could wipe it off her face. But the next words I heard made my face drain of blood and my palms suddenly sweat, despite the freezing weather.

"They're bonded Kirova."

Those three words. Simple, yet they stopped everybody in their tracks. Everybody but Rose and Lissa stared at us like we were from another planet or something. I finally looked up to the person who had revealed our secret. It was that guy that Rose was staring at before. He was standing at the door, as if he had just happened to walk in right on time to say this information, or maybe he'd been listening the entire time. Either way, I was pissed. How dare this guy tell everybody this information? Just who does he think he is?

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you've been eavesdropping Adrian, for now." _He_ was Adrian? Why wasn't it so obvious before? He and Rose were obviously undressing each other with their eyes before in the corridor, how had I not picked up on that. God, my 'guarding skills' really weren't proving the best of me lately. "But why would you assume they have a bond? They're best friends, nothing more. This 'bond' stuff is only in the books, it's a legend", Kirova seemed to be having an internal war going on inside of her, and here I thought I was the crazy one.

But Adrian decided to keep his argument going by adding myself and Andre into the conversation.

"You can feel what Andre can, can't you Belikov? Is it like a hum of emotions in the back of your head, and you can tell that they're not yours? Or maybe you can go into his head, as if you were him? But you can't control him whilst you're in there. It's just like you are watching everything through his eyes. Or how about this, to put the cherry on top. He can send you thoughts, as if he was speaking, yet his mouth isn't moving. Like telepathy?" How the hell did he know all about bonds? I thought.

My lack of response must have been a confirmation in his eyes, because he gave a slight nod towards Kirova. I slowly turned back to the old hag; no doubt she's going to start ranting again. But this time, she surprised me. She looked behind me, probably at Adrian, there must have been some silent confrontation going on there, then her eyes moved to Andre and I.

"Right, this is how it will be. Given the circumstances, Belikov must graduate. Legend says that guardians with bonds to their charges turn out to be the best of the best with their… extra abilities." She directed her words towards me, "You will be under strict supervision, with a guardian around you at all times. You will attend extra trainings before classes start every morning with Rose, as sh-"

"Excuse me? Do I get a say in this Kirova? It's not like you're sacrificing my much needed sleep ins' here." Rose interrupted for the first time.

"AS I was saying, you will attend those trainings with Rose because she is the most talented novice around, and I'm sure she'll put you in your place, just like she has done with most of the guardians here. That is, if Rose is willing enough to help"

Great. Now my life was in Rose's hands. I didn't think she would be that shallow, but you never know with Rose. I wonder what Rose was seeing as she looked at Andre and I. Two seventeen year olds who broke out of a high security school, with not so much as a peep and managed to live a life of freedom for 5 months, or two helpless friends that were staring at her with wide, pleading eyes. I think it was the latter.

"Fine., I'll do it Belikov. But only because I get the pleasure of whooping your ass time and time again all morning. That might deflate that big head of yours eventually." She finally decided before walking out with Lissa and Adrian in tow.

_Unlikely,_ I thought to myself. But boy, I was wrong.

**K, i probably dragged that on a bit too much then, but hey. i wrote this last night at like 2 in the morning, and only just got my lappy back. gimme some slack if youre a hater?**

**Review? xx**

**- De**


	3. New Faces & New Moves

**YAY, chapter 3! It probably sounds all rushed and stuff, so I'm sorry if you guys hate it, or can't understand it, but it comes together in the next few chappies. I don't wanna drag it out too much but some things take time hey?**

**Big thank you's to:**

**My amaaazing beta – Zoe ;) thank you for editing my stuff ups! X**

**Jemily23, lovingbites and ..xo for reviewing**

**And**

**YOU! For reading it and adding it to your favourites. :D MWAH**

**Disclaimer: I do not own vampire diaries … OH WAIT wrong one, I do not own Vampire Academy and I never will. Unless I become a bisquillionaire and buy it off of the talented Richelle Mead. I wish…**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

After our big confrontation with Kirova, she called in a matron that was to lead us to our rooms. We grabbed our belongings that were sitting next to the office and followed the matron. On the way to the dorms we were told who we were sharing our rooms with. Andre was sharing with Jesse Zeklos. Jesse, last time I recalled was the biggest manwhore in our year, if not the whole academy. He had girl upon girls wrapped around his fingers and could get them to do anything at his will. Although a lot of guys looked up to him as being 'The Womanizing God', Andre and I looked down at him as scum. He was just an asshole, end of discussion.

I was sharing a room with some new novice that had transferred from St. Basil's in Russia. To say I was shocked was an understatement. St. Basil's was right near Baia, my hometown, and it was a pretty elite academy. Mama hadn't been able to afford the fees so she'd sent us to a regular school and Babushka would teach us how to fight after school and during holidays - as she used to be a guardian herself. It was nice to think that I had someone like me to share a room with.

Turned out my roomie was also a Zeklos. _Why does a dhampir have a Royal name?_ If dhampir's have a parent who is a Royal, it's probably because the Moroi – usually a male – had an affair with a dhampir, and then they paid off the dhampir to keep quiet about the baby. They are barely recognised as Royals, and end up taking the dhampir parents name to avoid drama from Court about a Royal being a guardian and whatnot. Anyway, his name was Ivan, and he'd been transferred here because his family had died in a strigoi attack. I had no idea why the matron was telling me all this information. It seemed pretty personal to make public if you asked me.

We split up after that, Andre heading to the Moroi wing, whilst I went in the opposite direction to the dhampir's. Once I got to my room I retrieved my key from my pocket and slowly unlocked the door and shot my hand through to turn on the light. One second I was standing up, running my hand along the wall to find the switch, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor with somebody sitting on my chest with a stake pressed up to my throat as if I were a strigoi. He had bleached blonde hair styled in that surfy look that I had always heard Viktoria and Mia go on about. He was naturally tanned – I think that was because St. Basil's ran on a human schedule, I have no idea why they would be on human schedules, we guard at night. They should have trained at night to get used to it – and I could see his muscles in his arm flexing as he gripped the stake. What slightly creeped me out was his golden brown eyes. They were cold and emotionless, almost like all the happiness inside of him had disappeared.

"What in the hell? GET OFF ME!" I yelled at him, snapping him out of his deadly trance. _This guy has serious issues if he thinks that a strigoi could just waltz onto school grounds, passing the wards as if they were nothing._ I thought to myself.

Then it hit me. Of course he'd be tensed for a fight with strigoi. The matron was probably trying to warn me without saying 'Oh yeah your roomie is a complete psychopath, but don't freak out if he attacks you the second you step into the room'. I think he finally realised I wasn't a strigoi because he put his stake away, got off of me and helped me up. He also looked quite tall, almost as tall as me. He didn't say anything though. A sorry would have sufficed, but no, nothing.

"Uh, hey I'm Dimitri Belikov, your new roommate?" It came out as more of a question than a statement, and I was kind of worried about what his reaction would be, whether he would go for round 2 and tackle me again, or if he would actually be civilised. He still didn't answer me. He just shrugged and turned to his laptop. _Okay, well if he's going to be like that then there's no point in even trying_. I grabbed my bags and started unpacking, lessons started tomorrow and I needed to be ready.

~S, L & L ~

I was getting my ass handed to me by none other than Rose. When I first walked in to my early morning training the next day **(A/N: Our night, just in case you guys forgot)**, I saw Rose sitting on the floor staring off into space, almost like I did with Andre. Is it possible that she's bonded to somebody too… no, I can't picture Rose dying. And how would she have died? There have been no more attacks since we left, or that I know of. She blinked a couple times once she heard the gym doors slam shut and got up. She started by making me run 10 laps of our football oval, to which I replied by flipping her off. That earned me an extra 5. I ran my original 10 laps -and was halfway through my 11th- in a daze going at my own pace, but Rose ran up to me and told me to get a move on. I looked at my watch and it said I'd been out here for 25 minutes. Rose sprinted with me for the remaining laps and then led me into the gym.

"Come on, let's see what you've been doing for 5 months Comrade", she challenged and raised her hand, beckoning me with her fingers. She stood in an attacking stance, whilst I followed her moves and started in a defensive posture.

Not even 2 minutes later, she had her answer. Damn, she got good in 5 months, and it's wasn't like I was lying on the couch the whole time stuffing my face with popcorn and chocolate, I was still training. I felt bruises starting to form on my face already, and my body was aching everywhere. After this next round we were going to talk for the rest of the time.

"Did you even train while you were away Belikov? I got you down in ten seconds flat that round" She asked when she helped me back up after knocking me down, again.

"Yeah, we tried going to the gym at least 3 times a week but school kept getting in the way, and the gym was far away. Actually, you caught us when we were heading back to our house from the gym." I explained, but I sounded kind of defensive. I crossed my arms and waited for the next round of questions to pop out of her mouth.

"Oh, so you didn't join and sports then?" That was an odd question. I mean, it was kind of obvious I wouldn't so that I could guard Andre 24/7 without having to let down a team or something. I explained that to her and to my surprise she agreed with me. Time was soon up so we got up and ready to leave. Rose and I walked back to the dhampir dorms to have showers and get ready. I decided to make conversation, as it was getting a bit awkward between us.

"Rosie, what were you doing this morning when I walked in?" She suddenly tensed, either the name still pissed her off, or it was the question. Probably the latter because she usually just threatens to cut your tongue out with a butter knife if you call her Rosie. It took her a couple seconds to reply.

"Nothing, just thinking" She finally said, before rushing off to do god knows what.

I had no time to think about her nonchalant answer because I suddenly felt Andre's emotions in the bond darken. I stopped walking once I got inside and hid behind the staircase then jumped in his head to see what was going on, which took a bit of effort. I thought Andre would have been going through another bout of depression or something with how dark his thoughts were but I was shocked to see that he, Lissa and Adrian were inside one of the cabins that guardians used to use whilst they were on patrol, and this one was just outside of the wards. I took off in that direction, despite my lungs protests after being put through hell all morning.

I made it there in record time and flung open the door to the cabin. Lissa jumped in fright whilst Adrian and Andre just sat there, concentrating on two pots in front of them. After digging into his mind a bit I realised he was practicing spirit. And after even more searching I was informed that Lissa had specialised in Spirit as well, and Adrian had yet to specialise so they were testing him to see if he had Spirit. Huh, after all this time of searching through books looking for more spirit users, who would have known that there were another two in the last place we would ever want to go back to.

I slid next to Lissa on the couch and stared at Andre as he attempted to grow one of the plants.

"Andre, you're not doing it right. Remember how you healed Dimitri? You brought all those fuzzy feelings of life and all the good things about it and pushed them into his body. Well this time, you have to think about what plants need to survive and push it into the plant." She instructed, going over and putting one hand on the plant and the other grabbing Andres hand and placing it over hers, demonstrating what to do. I just sat there shocked that she'd bring up my death again_. How would she know how that felt to use that amount of spirit? _That voice in my head whispered. Far out, I need to see somebody about this voice.

"Feel that energy? You need to produce that." She said one last time and looked at Andre to see if he understood before going back to the couch and sitting back down. She looked a bit drained.

A few minutes last the door burst open again, and we all quickly stood up expecting it to be a teacher or something. What we weren't prepared for was the person who had a seriously pissed off look on their face.

**Oooooh, cliffy. God I hated those. But I felt like being a meanie pie and making you wait to see what comes. I'm already having writers block, how stupid is that. I know what direction I want to go in the story, but I can't get it in words. UGH SO GAAAAAAAAAY!**

**I'll try getting another couple or so up by Friday :)**

**REVIEWS? Please *Bats eyelashes***

**x**


	4. Confrontations

"Vasilisa Rhea Dragomir, you damned well better have a legitimate reason as to why you're practicing spirit! You thought I wouldn't find out?" the voice screeched. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lissa cringe slightly. But they didn't stop yelling. This time directed at different people.

"Andre, back for a day and already converting your sister into a sinner? Nice to know how much you want her to stay sane." As she walked – or rather stomped - into the dimly lit room I found myself staring into those big brown eyes, currently glowing with fury. Then she turned her face towards me.

"And you! You say you're all tough and strigoi worthy, but what the hell are you doing letting three Moroi practice magic? Not to mention we're outside of the wards!" This one was directed at me. If anything, her eyes narrowed slightly more and grew darker once they settled on me.

Suddenly, all my snide remarks and quips disappeared. Why was I out here? No guardian would allow one, let alone three Moroi unguarded by the wards. It was stupid and foolish. As if Rose noticed my inner war, she turned back to Lissa, Adrian and Andre. Looking all three dead in the eyes she told them to march themselves back over the ward and get ready for classes. Who knew? _The_ Rosemarie Hathaway was worried about being tardy to class.

We all got up off the couches and all but ran back over into the academies grounds. Rose and I behind the group, making sure no Strigoi decided to attempt a sneak attack.

After I walked up the stairs to my room I went and took a long awaited shower, scrubbing off the sweat and dirt from practice with Rose. I walked back into the room with a towel wrapped around my waist and water dripping down my body, completely forgetting that I had a roommate.

Ivan hadn't noticed me yet. He looked oblivious to the world with his earphones in, so I was just going to grab the first things I saw and high tail it back to the bathroom to change. Once I'd changed and left the bathroom Ivan took one look at me and nodded towards my bed, where a note of some kind laid atop my pillow. My schedule.

**1st period – Advanced guardian combat techniques**

**2nd period - Bodyguard theory and personal protection 3**

**3rd period – Weight training and conditioning**

**4th period – Senior language arts (Novices)**

**Lunch **

**5th period – Animal behaviour and physiology**

**6th period – advanced calculus**

**7th period – Moroi culture 4**

**8th period – Hospitality**

Ugh. I'd forgotten how long the Academy's school day was. The first half of the day was split between Moroi classes and Novice training. Then during the second part of the day we would combine in classes. Talk about racism. I looked down the list at my teachers. They were even worse than the lessons. One that stuck out was Stan. I had Guardian Stan Alto for second period and third period. To put it lightly, he was a complete douche, and we never _ever_ got along. _Ever. _At the bottom of the paper was a note from Kirova.

_Straight to classes Belikov._

Wow. What a bitch. Sending me straight to classes was beyond cruel, I mean, I hadn't had a wink of sleep for at least 36 hours.

I trudged along to my combat lesson, stopping briefly at my locker to store my books, which were beside my schedule. There was no point in me even taking a shower this morning, I was about to sweat my heart out again, and if the rest of the Novices were as talented as Rose was, I'm pretty certain that I'll have more bruises than tanned skin by the end of the week.

I walked into the gymnasium with a few other novices, some girl – Meredith Miller if I recall correctly – was staring at me. I looked anywhere but at her, still feeling her gaze on me. I turned my back on her, but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was staring at me. I turned my head slightly, to see if she was still gawking at me, but she'd started making conversation with one of the few girls – new by the looks of it, I'd never seen her around before - stealing a few glances my way. I was too far away to hear what they were saying.

Myself and Andre once held this schools respect, and just because we took a five month vacation doesn't mean we automatically become outcasts. It was time to get it back. I strode up to Meredith and the other girl and gave them one of my rare, full-faced smiles. The girls ate it up and began flirting profusely. I caught Rose in the corner of my eye talking to Eddie and Mason. I excused myself from Meredith and the girl – Summer, and walked towards the gang.

"well, well, well. Look what Rosie dragged in" teased Mason, lightly punching my arm.

I laughed quietly at Roses expression over that nickname and did what most typical guys would do. I grabbed his swiftly into a headlock and began wrestling with him. Of course, I was taken down, but it wasn't a serious spar, just a muck-around.

After a bit more catching up, we finally began class. The guardian on duty pretty much shunned me in class, saying I would barely make it through trials and field experience with the lack of skills I had. Um. Come again? I was gone for _5 months!_ Not two years. I'm not that far behind, far out. I spent the rest of that lesson taking my anger out on my opponents, not that that got me very far, I was still brought down by every single novice I versed.

After the bell that signalled lesson change, I all but ran into the change rooms, had a quick shower – and by quick I mean one minute, not even – to get the sweat off my body, again.

I walked into Stan's class a few minutes later than some novices and sat down in the only seat available, and as he turned to see who'd interrupted his monotonous speech I noticed his face contort into one of the most disgusting sneers I'd ever witnessed in my life.

"What's this? Nobody told me we had a guest speaker today. Dimitri Belikov, what a privilege! How very _generous_ of you to take time out of your busy schedule to share your knowledge with us."

Ugh. How I did not miss this.

"Well, come on, come on. Don't just sit there! Come on up to the front so you can help me lecture the class." I sunk back into my chair.

"You can't be serious." I protested, trying to keep up my fearless façade. "You don't mean-"

"Oh, I mean _exactly_ what I say, Belikov. Go up to the front of the class." Despite my complete dislike for this dick I had to follow orders. _One bad move and I'm out of here._

I noticed Rose staring intently at me, humour written all over her face.

"Now, please. Tell us all how you guarded the Dragomir Prince for 5 whole months. Enlighten us about your protective techniques."

It was like déjà vu, thinking back to the lecture with Kirova.

"My… techniques?"

"Of course, you must have ran into strigoi, or other dangerous obstacles." He spoke matter-of-factly. The psi-hound attack popped up into my mind again. Maybe the Academy had sent them.

"We didn't run into any strigoi." I spoke through my teeth, attempting to control my anger.

I looked around the room again, noticing Roses humorous look had turned to one of interest. Actually, the whole room was dead quiet, listening intently. If it weren't for the fact that I was being ridiculed up the front, I would think this was hilarious.

Stan let out a very un-amused chuckle before continuing. "Obviously. Or else you wouldn't be alive."

That did it. I turned towards Stan with the most pissed off look I could muster up, pulled my arm back and brought it forward full-force, right into Stan's ugly mug.

"I know what we did wasn't what would be expected of a Royal, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Maybe if you Guardians were doing your job right, your might have prevented us from leaving. But no, you all failed. And you blame _us? _ No Stan, the only ones to blame here are the Guardians on duty, and if memory serves me right, you were there when we walked right through the gates. So don't preach to me how reckless we were, or I'll show you just how reckless I can be." And with that speech I swiftly left the room, slamming the door on the way out.

I heard somebody follow me out, but it didn't take an idiot to realise who it would be.

"Just go away Rose." I yelled, slamming my fist into the closest locker.

I felt someone's hand on my forearm and relaxed slightly. "Hey, calm down. Don't let the darkness take over Dimka, fight it." Rose murmured, whilst rubbing circles on my back.

"ROZA! Just get lost, you don't understand anything. Go! I don't want you near me!" I yelled, punching even more lockers on my way down to the exit into the court yard. I knew this was just the darkness talking but I needed to release it, and unfortunately Rose happened to be the only one around. I didn't hear any footsteps behind me, so I turned around and noticed Rose standing there.

Rose's mask crumbled slightly, and I saw just how much pain I'd inflicted with my words.

"Rose, I – " I was cut off suddenly when Rose put her hand up in a sort of 'shut your face' signal.

"No Dimitri, you're right." She walked past and touched my arm, and with that, all the darkness inside of me vanished.

What the hell?


End file.
